Related Stories

Topics

Perhaps we shouldn't tell the New York Rangers and Washington Capitals that since the NHL adopted the best-of-seven format for all four playoff rounds in 1987, no team has won the Stanley Cup after playing in seven games in each of the first two rounds.

The Rangers and Capitals will meet in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinal Saturday night at Madison Square Garden. The Rangers needed seven games to oust the Ottawa Senators in the first round, while the Capitals went the distance with the defending Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins.

Here are five things to watch for as the Rangers and Caps contest the right to face the New Jersey Devils in the conference final:

1. The Capitals' insistence on patiently watching for the Rangers to cough up the puck so they can get a scoring chance. Taking advantage of mistakes has become magnified in this series. "They have been playing a lot in their own end, just waiting for mistakes, and then they go, and they are a pretty fast team," Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist said. "The Capitals sit back a little bit more and they are fine with not having the puck as much. Then they come and a lot of times it is odd-man rushes."

2. If the adage holds true that the best players have to be the best players in the biggest games, we would suggest keeping an eye on the Capitals' Alex Ovechkin and Alexander Semin and the Rangers' Brad Richards and Marian Gaborik. Ovechkin and Semin were better than the Rangers pair in Game 6, but the opposite was true in Game 5. A hungry Ovechkin is a dangerous Ovechkin, and the Rangers defence pair of Dan Girardi and Ryan McDonagh will have to be wary. "He is one of the best players in the league and, in a game like this, we have to expect him to be out there flying," Rangers captain Ryan Callahan said of Ovechkin. Both Richards and Ovechkin have the talent to come through in the clutch. Neither shies away when the heat is intense.

3. Special teams. Of the teams remaining in the playoffs, the Capitals' 18.4% power-play success rate is second, while the Rangers are third at 16.4%. The Caps' penalty killing is at 87%, or third among teams still alive, and the Rangers are fourth at 82.2%. In a series that has been as close as this one, the game's outcome likely will be decided with a player sitting in the penalty box. And we don't just mean with a power-play goal. Killing off a penalty can be just as important for swinging momentum as scoring a goal with a man advantage. For the most part, the teams have been disciplined and that will not change in Game 7. But it's the one penalty or two that could be paramount.

4. The goaltending of Lundqvist and Capitals rookie Braden Holtby. With one game to play and the loser going home for the summer, the natural choice would be to pick Lundqvist as your guy, right? But it's hard to argue with what Holtby has done for the Capitals throughout the playoffs. As the teams in front of them have made precious few mistakes, the same can be said of the netminders. Every goalie has allowed goals that he would like to have back (all of them, honestly), but when the game is over neither of these two should hang his head in shame. Given his youth, we'll be curious to see how Holtby handles this game. He's 22 and became a father on Thursday. That's enough to play with anyone's head.

5. A continued impact from the lineup shuffles each coach has had to make. Rookie Chris Kreider apparently will be thrust into a pressure-packed situation as he was put back on the second line at practice Friday. No matter what the 21-year-old has done in the recent past, it's a lot to ask of an inexperienced kid to truly step up in such a big game. And Caps forward Jay Beagle, who missed Game 6 with a lower-body injury, did not practise Friday. He was replaced by Jeff Halpern for that game, and though Halpern took a four-minute high-sticking minor (that was killed off), overall, he did not put the Caps at a disadvantage. Beagle is day to day.